gesundheit

Carrie better not be dead now that they're letting her be wonderful. (And of course if she's dead it'll be another storyline about how Finley's life is so cruel.)

I love Carrie's parental relationship with Finley, I'm enjoying this direction. Perhaps Carrie can help Finley find work that isn't at a bar and doesn't let her just abandon work shifts because of girlfriend drama. SO glad Hendrix and Angie are over. What even was the point of that? I hope she reports him. I've been begging for a Tasha update since this reboot began, but that wasn't the one I wanted! Come on, Alice, go find her!

I feel like they could've just pulled that off as a pastiche (the b/w sitcom, the sailor theme, the game show) without making it a musical and it would've worked. Maybe keep Sophie's song (because she sounded great) and the framing device song where they were still at the retreat (because it was cute and ushered us into the not-realism of the three dreams). But Alice's and Shane's dreams should not have been songs. That opening scene was just embarrassing for Shane. I'm glad the closing scene happened, though it was pretty clear to me what she was walking into. I wish Alice's "The One" had been Tasha instead of... ghost writer dude, I've already forgotten his name even though I enjoyed them together. I also wish that poor Erin Daniels didn't have to have her guest appearance in that awful look! But it was nice to see her anyway. I kinda wanted Dream Dana to be way harsh and point out to Alice that she wasn't even her longest relationship and they weren't together when she died. I know romanticizing someone/something as perfect after a death is completely normal, but Alice does need to face that that's what she's done.

Has Finley ever actually finished a work shift? Dear GOD.

Did anyone else feel like the image/sound sync was off in this episode? Half the dialogue seemed like it was recorded in post, but with only one take. And the editing -- when we'd go from shot to reverse shot, someone's entire posture would be wildly different. It just felt like it was a rush edit. My guess is the clothing swap was written well before the cast showed up to shoot season 2 -- those two easily could've shared clothes last year! Bela could definitely transfer, just not to anywhere that can do for her what staying at Essex and working it out can do. It would be dumb to leave if they're willing to let her stay. Of course she also doesn't need to go have a transfer approved by Essex, she should really just find out where she wants to transfer to and make sure she can pull it off, but of course it's a TV show so she needed a monologue. (Not like any of it matters anyway, obviously she's coming back next year, but it's fun to nitpick!) I'm pretty thrilled, since I loved her arc the first season and have always wanted the show to stop presenting Greek life as the only life. (I seriously cannot picture Whitney with that sorority, though.)

Her hair was amazing! I'd love to see an arc where Leighton tones it all down just a little and hangs out with the women's group. Sometimes the jokes in those scenes are a little weak -- like early-90s women's studies stereotypes, but I still like that group and I think Leighton is funnier in that environment. Bela is really a mess this season. Andrew seems like maybe he has some sort of disorder? I'm probably reading it entirely wrong since obviously it was all meant to be funny, but he didn't really seem like an asshole to me, more like someone who has trouble understanding social interactions and can't read cues.

Angie's story is infuriating. I was giving them a chance to have it turn a corner, but apparently they thought it would be cute to double down. I did get a kick out of Finley being this outraged at Shane. Shane's being gross, but it's Finley! Nice to see Max show up (and get an apology!). The funny thing is that at first I thought, "Oh that's nice, they're giving Daniel Sea a cameo in a nod to the original" and then they called him Max and I still thought "what a nice homage." Took me another full five seconds to remember this whole thing is the same universe. Oops. Gen Q just seems so disconnected when we're with the new gen.

Agreed, and the acting from some of the guest stars was equally subpar -- making a lot of it look really awkward and therefore suspicious. Half the time I thought it must somehow be the bodyguard because he was coming off as so bizarre but the other time I thought Misty herself must've been staging something because she was acting so bizarre. Turns out nope, just awkward writing and acting.

I'm not so into Tatum (nothing about her in particular is bad - I just get bored of the twincest thing beyond a comic beat) but she could be worth it to me if her total disinterest in Greek life moves the girls away from framing that as the only social scene worth paying attention to. (Speaking of which, odd that that still do that anyway especially after Leighton's whole non-Greek awakening last season.) I think we actually did move really fast because I'd been wondering the same thing -- but it sounded to me like maybe a new trimester began after they came back from Thanksgiving (which is why there were new students and they started new classes) and it now actually is springtime. Plus of course we jumped a couple months by the timing of Kimberly's egg harvesting. Previews next week talk about it being the end of freshman year. I wish they'd been clearer about the passage of time, it's been so confusing! Are we in the final trimester or the middle one right now?? (Judging from the outdoor scenes it better be the final trimester of the academic year because come on, it's Vermont. There's no green in March/April.)

I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would, since thankfully the wedding (and that entirely hideous dress) was over before the opening credits. I did like giving the girls one last hurrah, it made sense -- Olivia is the lead character and she was considerably less saintly in this one. I don't like Amanda so I expected to hate every second, but it was kind of cute finding a way to get them wine-drunk together out of town. (And gave them an excuse to do a little fan service for the shippers who want to hear what Olivia says about Elliott after a few glasses. I'm not one of them, but they are legion and need to be fed!) That said -- listen, Giddish and Hargitay are both beautiful women but using them as honey pots time and time again has really been a stretch for a while now. And it always works like a charm. And I continue to laugh at Amanda being a professor at a major university. I'm sad that they wouldn't free Carisi, but at least they'll free him from her in on-screen scenes. Are they bringing in someone new? If not, that's going to be really annoying to have Muncy as the only other woman on the show -- clearly a loose-cannon undisciplined immature type to further demonstrate Olivia's Ideal Woman. We better get more Fin now that they have more time to fill. What was all that focus on the pie? I expected some big reveal. Very bizarre. And his brother does too! Guess it runs in the bloodline.

Just like any good recovering alcoholic who just relapsed 2 years ago at her bar job would do! Very normal stuff!

I don't have a problem in general with cheating storylines on a soap (it's the bread and butter), but they so rarely seem able to come up with other story-driving conflicts so it does get tedious. Shane's still "got it" and all (as evidenced by the corny but weirdly sexy demolition montage), but who has that kind of energy after 40 in the middle of the day at your friend's job? And why is Gigi so concerned about what it "means" that she saw Nat and the kids when she got into the car crash? Her children and their mother (who she's known and loved since she was a teenager, apparently)? That's a pretty normal thing to flash before your eyes before the girlfriend of just over one year! But of course it has to mean a cheatin' heart. And it really took so little. I saw it happening in the previews and gave the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was a fantasy sequence or something. Instead, same old same old. And even if she learns a big lesson here and straightens out, well... we've already seen that cycle.

I haven't read any of these books and didn't know what to expect, but I like the structure. Two episodes for a short mystery, and a season-long arc as well. I love me a good murder show, but sometimes they can get a little exhausting dragging out the story to fit 6 or 8 or 10 episodes, and you know that nothing really matters until the penultimate. But I also like a reason to keep coming back. The first two episodes were okay for me, a little too corny in some spots but enough to bring me back to see if it settles in. Only two or three of the actors looked familiar to me at all, so that's always fun to get to know new faces. I can tell I'll struggle to remember who's who for a while, since I have no idea who most of the characters folks in this thread are talking about! No clue or Clara or Myrna or Peter are. I think the names I retained were the detectives, the murder victim, and Crie. Oh and Ruth, she was fairly memorable (but overwitten -- one of the things I hope settles).

Damnit, Shane! It's always so strange to me that queer women on TV never have a type. Any woman is fair game for any other woman. Femme/femme, butch/femme, butch/butch, it's all the same on TV. Honestly it's not to say people always do stick to a type but usually when they stray from their patterns it's at least processed or noticed in some way. I don't know why it bothers me, maybe it kind of makes tv lesbians all seem interchangeable. It's nice to see this iteration of the series feature more androgynous or masc-of-center folks than the original, but it doesn't seem to have changed anything on that front

I watched the last two episodes pretty far apart and literally only just remembered when reading your comment that she has an official boyfriend making this cheating. Oops! (Guess she forgot too.) I appreciate that they're telling a story about young women using the only "advantage" the world tells them they have over young men to get ahead, but I don't think they did enough to show how desperate she was. She's a college freshman and the late-night dude was already open to her as an intern, this isn't exactly "years of trying to get ahead in this field and constantly being beaten out by men." Is it still supposed to be winter? I'm so confused because Kimberly already went through the full egg donation process and the campus is lush green again and folks are in light jackets. In Vermont. But somehow this season started post-Thanksgiving? Are we in the next semester and we missed it? (I know, I'm overthinking it) Leighton's twincest story is funny and that is such a real thing, although a lot of people never leave that "phase" and it's just creepy. I know a lot of couples like that and they always tell stories about hotel clerks or something thinking they're sisters or brothers and they roll their eyes like it's heteronormative ignorance when I'm like, "Or, it's that you look like twins."

Bela had consequences and is clearly going to be in a (revenge-sex-having) back and forth with them with that guy. I think she's definitely going to have consequences. Her phone call with that sorority sister was super-sketchy from the sorority girl's end. It's coming. It doesn't really make any sense that Bela can be doing that badly in a class she stays in. She got into the school in the first place. Sure, her parents can pay sticker price but she's not like Leighton or Whitney with legacy/public-figure parents. She'd have to actually be a good student. Are there some states where you're allowed to call it "selling your eggs" now? It's been a while but I remember all egg and sperm handoffs legally having to be called "donations" while the money was "compensation for your time," rather than a sale. But on the show even the brochure is like "Yeah, sell your eggs, make a bunch of money!" It's true that Ivy+ girls can get more money because recipients want "smart genes," but it used to all be very careful wording. Once Kimberly starts those injections I imagine they'll start throwing sex opportunities at her left and right. Seems like that has to be part of the impending shenanigans, that she'll have to turn them down because she's too fertile.

Hopefully that's what will happen, but at the moment it does sound like the plan is a second bar? Very confusing.

The combo of tragic heartbreak and movingly happy endings in that episode? That's the magic formula, I was a mess during this one. Half because of what was on the screen, and half because we're losing it soon. I'm so glad Lamb Chop at least got some good pets and affection in his final days.

They said she was going to the financial aid office on campus but definitely treated it like a bank loan. My guess is that the writers were basing it off bank loan experiences and none of them ever had a FA crisis in the middle of an academic year, and just assumed it basically functions like an on-campus bank. College financial aid is one of only about a kajillion things TV gets wrong all the time and most of those things I can shrug off for artistic license (or scrutinize for general amusement but not out of any real frustration), but it's just that kids are so influenced by this stuff and so poorly informed about it because of the lack of real information and the preponderance of misinformation that it just bothers me more than most "it's only like this on TV" subjects. Because of these depictions and the dearth of simple real-world info, so many kids end up deciding they just can't go to college. Or the opposite: the kids that get sucked into bad, bad deals because of how it's depicted. (Or general anti-higher-ed assholes who judge folks struggling with student loan payments)

They really do. This show does kind of live in a really really generalized world of absolutes where all girls (including lesbians!) are oversexed droolers anytime a cute boy is nearby and fraternities are the only reasonable social option on a huge Ivy+ campus. I get that Leighton can still appreciate an aesthetically appealing man, but she's always absolutely as invested in all the drooling and ogling as the other girls in their group scenes. It's very strange. It was painfully realistic that Kimberly did something as ridiculous as asking a professor to co-sign her 6-figure loan (students do this all the time to faculty and staff, truly proving how predatory the system is considering if they could understand what they're asking for at all they would never dream of this), but a professor saying "yes" is madness. I wish they'd done something like have the prof be her nominator for a grant or something, it just felt too silly. And silly is good, it's a comedy, but they didn't play that part for comedy! At least her accountant told her how dumb it was, I just think they could've played up the whole thing for laughs. I definitely preferred the first episode! But still glad this is back.

Also, for some reason I thought Angie was in middle school the first season? In the adult lives no more than two total years have passed but somehow Angie's aged like 5 years? Or am I completely wrong about her original age? I thought she was around 13.

So happy this is back! I did crack up that they acted like Thanksgiving break was weeks long. It's 2 days and a weekend! Leave Wednesday night, come back Sunday! (I guess the rare college gives the full week but still, that's it. It's just a week.) Frankly, these girls should be relieved to be banned from frat parties. They'll be fine. The Kimberly story drove me a little nuts. Like most shows, they have no idea how financial aid works. Also she was right the first time, she should have demonstrated that she's working class. And you don't borrow for 4 years at once, there's no way that woman would've given her a monthly amount like that! (Also how is she going to pay for a year of tuition and housing at just $42k?) And the math didn't math on that reality show transcription job either. $20/hr isn't going to cover it. As for the FAFSA part, I can hand-wave that one as I assumed she already filed. You can definitely take out new loans mid-year. I agree that I don't want to watch her go through wacky side-job shenanigans while being told she's somehow pulling it off. Also she could just take out the loan for this year while trying to figure something else out for the future. The bill's due, baby!

The season premiere was pretty solid! Hilarious ending. I've completely forgotten what happened to Alice at the end of last season. I thought she was still with that guy?

I think in this case it was entirely that she was a cop's kid. They made it clear out the outset that this one mattered more, with Amanda listing all of their children and imagining what it would be like if it'd been them. Which seemed ridiculous because it's hardly the first time, they should've made it a cop one of them used to work with or something. Especially considering how hard the show has worked to tell us the SVU is the morally superior, enlightened unit that doesn't get swept up in the bleeding-blue/cop loyalty stuff.

I love Rain Valdez so I was glad to see her in this episode! All of the above, so much!! This whole thing made me crazy. First of all, an "expert in forensic psychology?" No she isn't. You know who experts in forensic psychology are? Forensic psychologists. It's not a cool thing you pick up at your cop job, it's a DOCTORATE. Jesus. And at Fordham, no less! Not at the White Plains DeVry or some two-year storefront for-profit college. Not as an adjunct lecturer, not a special guest, a full-time professor. Yes, definitely those faculty searches happen by somebody offering a cop a job via a mutual friend, that's all it takes. I was so hoping they'd actually have fun and write her as taking a job as a consultant on some NYC cop show. That would've been entertaining, plus they could actually do a little write-what-you-know in a few scenes! I was also so hoping they'd write her out in a way that freed Carisi of her, but clearly they're doing the exact opposite. Oh well.